The Alan Parsons Project

Ammonia Avenue Limited Edition Box Set

CHERRY RED/ESOTERIC Despite the title, it doesn’t stink.

By 1984 the Alan Parsons Project were flushed with success following 1982’s platinum-selling Eye In The Sky album and its chart-storming title track. Far from complacent, immediately on completion of promotional duties for Eye they’d begun work on the material that became Ammonia Avenue. Although it wouldn’t achieve the platinum success of its predecessor,

Ammonia reached gold status and gave them another hit with Don’t Answer Me, its blend of lavish Phil Spector sonics, resonant acoustic guitars and fast-acting melodies prefiguring the Traveling Wilburys. Dancing On A Highwire (featuring a spirited vocal performance from former Zombies frontman Colin Blunstone) and Prime Time layer glassy six-string motifs and keen vocal hooks over pulsing beats and overdriven guitars. The propulsive, Talking Heads-style beat of You Don’t Believe and the dramatic movie soundtrack ambience of Pipeline enliven the flow of the album, setting the scene for the concluding title track, which builds from sparse piano to brash riffs and opulent strings, overlaid with a high, angelic melody from Woolfson.

This expansive box set serves as an absorbing time capsule of the album’s germination. Two discs of demos progress from Eric Woolfson’s piano and scat vocal sketches, through full band rehearsals and rough mixes, and former Pink Floyd and Beatles engineer Parsons brings things up to the cutting edge with a new 5.1 surround mix. ■■■■■■■■■■